Annual investor trip wrap-up

Parrucci stands with a spiny cedar tree in JanuaryIn early January Planting Empowerment hosted a group of investors in Panama for our fourth annual Panama trip. We spent a couple of days touring our planting sites, getting to know the communities we work with, discussing the issues that we’re at work to address, and exploring firsthand how our forest investments are impacting our partners.

The drive out to the Darien province of Panama is always an adventure. Besides the terrible drivers and wandering livestock, the gaping potholes usually take a toll on our rental car. Somehow we managed to escape this time with only minor vehicular damage. The Darien is different every time I go back – changed road patterns, new construction, more infrastructure, the kids are grown up – but the same environmental and economic problems persist.

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Planting Empowerment published in WorldView Magazine

I recently wrote an opinion piece for the Winter issue of WorldView magazine that explores the development challenges we faced as Peace Corps Volunteers and how we engage impact investing to help us meet those challenges.

Impact investing is investing with the goal of earning a return while actively generating social and/or environmental benefits. Expected to reach $4 billion in 2012, the market is growing and maturing as more investors align their financial and social/environmental goals, and standards are put into place to measure performance.

While the article may stir controversy among our development colleagues, there is no denying the growth of impact investing. We believe that the forest investments we offer can drive social empowerment in our partner communities and ease pressure on surrounding rainforests.

Download the article (PDF, 927 kb)

J.P. Morgan/GIIN report on impact investment

Measuring the growth of a four year old treeIn December, investment bank J.P. Morgan released a report with the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) detailing interviews with 52 impact or potential impact investors. Impact investing represents roughly $4 billion in market potential in 2012, and is expected to capture potentially 5-10% of all investment in a decade.

The survey aims to uncover impact investor motivations and provide a more transparent view of the overall industry by analyzing investor responses to questions ranging from return expectations to investment motivations to topical investment focus. So what do investors think of the impact investing space? Here are some of the more interesting takeaways, from our perspective.

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UNDP Publishes Arimae Case Study

Arimae's native tree species nursery The UNDP-GEF’s Small Grants Programme recently published a case study on Arimae’s sustainable agroforestry project.

The piece highlights the three main components of the project, which Arimae conceived as a way to explore sustainable economic alternatives:

• Seed collection from native trees and nursery planting
• A carbon analysis of 500 hectares Arimae’s reserve
• Reforestation with a mix of native timber and fruit species

Planting Empowerment played a role by helping to manage the project and providing technical support. The project is generating social and environmental impacts by offsetting carbon and providing jobs and training to Arimae community members.

We expect to build on this success by facilitating agroforestry projects with other communities and incorporating that experience into our own operations.

Download the case study (PDF, 2.3MB)

2011 in Review

2011 was another year of “growth” for Planting Empowerment, and also marked our five year birthday. Our investors’ trees grew taller and stronger, we improved our operations, added to the Planting Empowerment Advisory Board, and formalized and gained more recognition for our Equitable Forestry model.

Operationally, we continued to develop initiatives to increase benefits to our partner communities. Namely, we began planting staple crops between the rows of trees (agroforestry), to generate returns earlier and increase efficiencies in our operations. We expect the plantains and yams to begin producing yields next year.

In 2012, Planting Empowerment plans to plant another five hectares of trees, bringing our total area under cultivation to 25 hectares (65 acres). We will be working with a former Peace Corps colleague-turned-biochar-expert Alan Foster to jumpstart our program, based on the MIT biochar business plan (PDF) created for us in 2010. We will use the biochar to fertilize our own trees initially, but will possibly sell it to other forestry or agricultural operations in the future.

2011 also marked the year that we formalized our operating model into five principals and gave it a name: the Equitable Forestry model. We were honored to be part of a United Nations Development Program study on Biodiversity in Latin America and the Caribbean (PDF). Planting Empowerment will also be presenting the model at the Yale School of Forestry International Society of Tropical Foresters Annual Conference in January of next year.

Thomas P. Kearney III and Sherif Gamal joined our Advisory Board, adding needed experience in finance and marketing, respectively. Our updated website holds more information for investors and visitors about forest investments, impact investing, tropical deforestation, and rural development. And the Planting Empowerment blog continues to serve as source of trusted information for those interested in forestry and investing in forestry.

As more investors recognize the benefits of responsible forest investing, we’re confident that Planting Empowerment will continue to create positive impacts for our partner communities and surrounding ecosystems. We look forward to working with you towards that goal in 2012.